Governor “Big Jim” Thompson, a Republican who served as Governor of Illinois from 1976 to 1991, passed away yesterday. As a federal prosecutor, Thompson oversaw the convictions of several corrupt Democratic Party Chicago machine politicians. He continued his reforming ways as governor. Indeed, in actions that would be inconceivable today, he went after corrupt politicians of both the Democratic and Republican parties.
Thompson's 1976 opponent was Chicago machine candidate Mike Howlett, a close friend of Mayor Richard J Daley. Although Howlett was never known to be corrupt himself, Thompson’s campaign speeches repeatedly pressed Howlett for his political machine connections. In this respect, Thompson simply echoed the accusations made by Howlett’s corrupt (and future prison inmate) Democratic primary opponent, Dan Walker. Walker and Thompson’s campaign speeches gave us a taste of the polarizing urban-rural campaign rhetoric that is tearing the United States of America apart in 2020. Years ago, I presented a paper to the Eastern Communication Association convention about the 1976 gubernatorial campaign that first put Thompson in the governor’s mansion.
Link: My Paper about the Walker-Howlett-Thompson Campaign for Illinois Governor
Walker’s Attacks on Howlett
During the 1976 Democratic primary campaign for Governor of Illinois, Walker, the incumbent Democratic governor, in one speech charged Howlett with “bossism” and said that the real question was if “the Daley machine ‘puppets’ would control state government.” On another occasion, Walker emphasized “his opposition to Daley ‘bossism’” both in person and in several television commercials. And so forth. Howlett defeated the unpopular and corrupt Walker easily. However, accusations like this gave Thompson the ammunition he needed to tear Howlett apart in the general election campaign.
Thompson’s Attacks on Howlett
Thompson’s main campaign argument was that the Chicago machine, of which Howlett was a part, should not run Illinois. On the night he won the Republican primary, Thompson explained that “I’m going to talk a lot about one-man rule—and I don’t mean Mr. Howlett.” This, presumably, was a swipe at Daley’s supposed influence over Howlett. Giving a speech in downstate Illinois, which then, as now, was heavily Republican, Thompson welcomed Howlett to southern Illinois. Ouch! Chicago is at Illinois' northeastern tip. Thompson’s point was that the Democratic organization’s support would alienate Howlett from conservative downstate voters.
On another campaign occasion, Thompson said that, “if Michael Howlett is governor, the major decisions affecting every citizen of Illinois will be made from the fifth floor of Chicago City Hall.” Thompson mentioned that Howlett “looks, talks and walks like Daley.” That last part was pretty much true; Daley and Howlett were both jowly, and gruff. In a campaign speech at Southern Illinois University, Thompson yelled to the students that “Mayor Daley is not going to shove the next governor of Illinois down the throats of the people of Illinois!”
Implications for the Politics of 2020
During his 1976 campaign for governor of Illinois, the opponents of Democrat Mike Howlett branded him as a lackey of powerful machine politician Richard Daley. These attacks appear to have created an image of Howlett in the public’s mind that was conducive to his decisive defeat at the hands of Republican Jim Thompson. The attacks were largely unfair: Howlett was, indeed, a machine politician, but he had a long reputation for independence and personal integrity.
Earlier: Trump's Polarizing Rally in Kentucky, Polarization Has Its Drawbacks
This campaign highlighted the political circumstances of Illinois, in which Chicago residents and downstate residents perceived themselves to have dissimilar interests. Much the same divide is true today, of course, as voters in urban and rural areas across the United States view their interests and needs as not only different, but contradictory. Chicago’s more liberal politics no doubt worried conservative voters in Illinois’ suburbs, rural areas, and smaller towns. The political divide that paralyzes us in 2020 was already starting in 1976, and Thompson’s extremely negative, mostly unfair campaign took advantage of that divide.
I was an Illinois resident in 1976, and I voted for Thompson precisely because I knew that the Chicago machine was corrupt and felt myself unable to support it. I did not agree with all of Thompson’s policies, but respected his public character. Although Thompson’s divisive rhetoric turned out to be a mere foreshadow of today’s polarizing politics, Thompson still deserves credit for years of sound, scandal-free governance and a career devoted to anti-corruption crusades. I would love to see Republicans like Thompson run for public office today. I wish that such Republicans still existed.
Image: James Thompson, 9/11 Commission
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